UK agrees to give France £480m to tackle small boat crossings

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UK agrees to give France £480m to tackle small boat crossings



Rishi Sunak arriving in Paris, promising a new beginning. His predecessor couldn't say if Emmanuel Macron was a true ally. It's France's offender faux prime minister. This new prime minister in little doubt. The warmest of handshakes in the courtyard of the Elysees Palace. This is the first summit of its kind since 2018. Both leaders keen to show the world that this is a diplomatic bromance.

A brief pose for the cameras, but soon alone together. The president and prime minister spent an hour in talks with no aides or officials in the room. Top of the agenda, small boats crossing the channel. In the last decade the UK has given over £250 million in funding to French authorities and they still keep coming. Rishi Sunak believes his predecessors took the wrong approach. If we're honest, the relationship between our two countries has had its challenges. But I believe today's meeting does mark a new beginning.

This means concrete action from the French to help stop small boats. We're announcing a new detention centre in northern France, a new command centre bringing our enforcement teams together in one place for the first time and an extra 500 new officers patrolling French beaches. All underpinned by more drones and other surveillance technologies that will help ramp up the interception rate. The small print he didn't say on stage. That means nearly half a billion more funding to French authorities over the next three years. The president's tone warm but says to return migrants to the EU, Britain must work well with Brussels. Not an agreement between UK and France but an agreement between UK and the EU because Dublin agreement are no more in a situation to be implemented.

So this is something now to be negotiated. Rishi Sunak closed this summit declaring the entente was renewed and he's certainly succeeded in transforming the tone of the relationship with the UK's closest neighbours. But he needs to convince the country and his party that this is the right approach, that collaboration doesn't involve more compromise than confrontation which was the way Boris Johnson and Liz Truss did it. And that has been made harder by the fact he's just written a check to the French for half a billion pounds. The pomp and platitudes of a summit leave big questions and answered, how will the detention centre work? Will more money finally mean fewer crossings? Rishi Sunak's reset continues next stop the United States. Being popular with fellow leaders doesn't mean votes at home however, for that grand promises need to come good and quickly. Sam Coats Sky News, Paris.



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